There's an unusual concentration of Federation ships over there

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It's week-end, and time for some more mini madness. Today let's talk a bit about the Separatist Fleet. The Separatists consist of several fractions, all of which use different ships. Below is a content image of the ships presented in this post, and we'll shed some light on the question which fraction uses what ship types.

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But let's stay a moment with the Trade Federation. They have several types of well-known capital ships in the fleet. First of all there's the Core Ship which you have seen above in the image. These are spherical and thus difficult to design. On the search for a solution, I ended up with a rock underside. Then there's an octagonal modified plate attached followed by a 3x3 dish. In this assembly the entire construct is perfectly spherical, but with the advantage of being functionalized for the addition of clips via the bars of the modified plate.

Those Core Ships serve as central unit of much larger ships, the so-called Trade Federation Battleships. These are in fact converted Lucrehulk-class transport ships. The Droid Control Ship is another modification but very similar to the Battleships. This model has been completely redesigned and uploaded just recently. To get a massive thick ring, almost the entire craft is built SNOT. In the middle would be the Core Ship, but I didn't use my actual Core Ship Mini because the scale for the Battleship would have been too large for a mini model.

Another popular ship of the fleet served under the name "Invisible Hand" as flagship of the infamous General Grievous during the Battle of Coruscant in the opening scene of "Revenge of the Sith". It's often referred to as Trade Federation Cruiser, but more correct is Providence-class Destroyer. It features all details including hangar shields and a disconnection possibility where the ship breaks apart in the movie.

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Another fraction of the Separatists is the Commerce Guild. They provide two starships to the fleet, among them the Recusant-class Light Destroyer also known as Commerce Guild Destroyer. This ship took we quite a while to realize the angled cockpit, the engines and the greebly guns on the underside. But in the end it turned out nicely. It's a quite lengthy ship, and that's why the mini model is also quite long, but I didn't want to make it more narrow than four studs.

Another ship of the Commerce Guild serves the fleet, but this is actually very rarely seen and quite unknown. It only appears for a few seconds during the Geonosis battle scenes in "Attack of the Clones". It's the half rounded Diamond-class Cruiser. This was actually quite tricky although it looks very simple. It has studs on both upper and under side and required some tricks to turn out symmetrically.

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Another ship, quite oftenly seen, especially in the new Clone Wars TV series, but also during the Battle of Coruscant in "Revenge of the Sith" is from the Banking Clan; the so-called Banking Clan Frigate or more correctly Munificent-class Star Frigate. The frigate has the typical bridge tower layout, but also a very tricky underside featuring much SNOT and the chin-mounted heavy turbolaser cannons. The most difficult part was to get two of them very close to each other without making the construction too thick.

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But there's also the Techno Union. Their vehicle of choice is the Hardcell-class Interstellar Transport. The ship was also used by the Banking Clan. It's one fo these ships getting blasted when Anakin Skywalker orders the gunship captain to fire on the fuel cells during the Battle of Geonosis. This is the third version of this ship I have built. The fuel cells are arranged in a trigonal fashion which is always difficult. My newest version is seen below. Those double TECHNIC Pins with axle hole combined with the triangular TECHNIC hub were the perfect pieces.

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Whew, that was a long story. I hope you enjoyed it. All images are links to their gallery and instructions as usual. Thank you for your time and interest!

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Thank you for your nice words! Personally I find capital ships more difficult to design than small craft. Get a huge ship into very small scale but feature its unique shape and details needs quite some time. But anway if capital ship or small vessel, a mini model often takes me more than one week, if this answers your question.

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These mini's are fantastic Legostein! I like the look of all, and most are instantly recognisable to me. It is difficult to choose a favourite but I will have to go with the Trade Federation Battleships.

Great work on all the greebling too.

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Great work Legostein! The amount of detail you've managed to squeeze in at this scale is remarkable. And thank you for categorising the many Federation ship types...I kind of wish George hadn't been so happy with his little rubber stamp when approving so many ship designs, but that's a story for another time...

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Great work Legostein! The amount of detail you've managed to squeeze in at this scale is remarkable. And thank you for categorising the many Federation ship types...I kind of wish George hadn't been so happy with his little rubber stamp when approving so many ship designs, but that's a story for another time...

Thank you. And you absolutely hit the point. I, too, think that there far too many vessels in the prequel movies. Most of them have only few seconds of screen time. That makes it difficult the get references. Compared to the orginial trilogy it's about twice the amount of vehicles and vessels. Nonetheless I will very soon run out of material.

Good job! I'd like to see some reference pictures in the first post if possible? If not then i'll happily upoad some for comparison

Thank you. However I think it's not neccessary to embed more images here. I think that Wookiepedia will be sufficient for all your needs.

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Great work Christopher! I especially like your Droid Control Ship. I'm pretty sure I've happened across your website before you've got many superb creations there. It's nice to give you credit in person

I haven't MOC'd anything in micro, though I did all the time when I was a kid. You may have inspired me to give it a try again!

I, too, think that there far too many vessels in the prequel movies. Most of them have only few seconds of screen time... Nonetheless I will very soon run out of material.

I wouldn't have said the that too many is a problem at all, afterall you wouldn't have so many nice creations! And despite so many ships you're still almost out of material! Much of Star Wars is about the vehicles and it's great to see so many wide and varied designs in films. It's just that lack of screen time and imagery that's frustrating.

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Hello once again and thank you for the kind words. I guess capital ships are more popular than small craft. It's actually more challenge and fun to design those.

It's just that lack of screen time and imagery that's frustrating.

And you're right about that. I should have expressed my thoughts in a different way. Of yourse I am glad about every ship I can build, but as you said it's hard to clearly spot them when they only appear for a second, especially when it's a very minor vehicle which also does not appear in many reference books.

Take care all and see you soon!

~ Christopher

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Very nice job. I like the fact that you included how the Core Ships actually connect with the battleships- I didn't knwo that untill a month or so again when I got Ep. 2 on DVD. I'd very much like to see a Malevolance mini.

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Studs Not On Top - it's a building technique which ensures that, well, the studs aren't on top ! Certain Lego pieces have studs on the sides which mean that you can attach other 'normal' bricks to these, and the normal bricks therefore run at right angles to the original build and there are therefore no studs showing on the upper surface. You can use this technique to do a whole bunch of stuff that wouldn't otherwise be possible, or would be ridiculously expensive (e.g. 'tiliing' large areas).

I'm sure someone else can probably explain better than me, but hopefully you get the point !